


time and time again

by mintyfrxsh



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dream Team SMP Roleplay (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, Tickling, headcanon that sapnap is a tickler, karl is ticklish, smp!dream, smp!karl, smp!sapnap, yea thats important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 00:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29909622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mintyfrxsh/pseuds/mintyfrxsh
Summary: “What do you want, Dream?” Karl asks softly. Any more of this and he may just die on the spot.“Too much,” Dream responds. “You could never give what I want to me.” He pauses, though, making his thoughts more specific. “I’ve been watching you, you know. I’ve been there.”“Been.. where?” He’s lost again, hopelessly keeping up with Dream. “In my shoes?”Dream wheezes. His laugh is devoid of everything it used to hold. “Nooo. I mean in the past. Eventually, the future. The present. I’m there.”
Relationships: Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	time and time again

“Sapnap, huh?”

It’s strange at first. Karl blinks once, then twice. The lava is warm, the cell is sweltering. The obsidian beneath his feet is thrumming, especially the purple crying obsidian. It’s pulsating with the pain it represents.

Dream leans against the side of his cell, the very faint sinister curl of his smirk barely twitching in the corner of his mouth. His arms are crossed, and his gaze is humorous. He’s unbothered, completely cool about the entire thing. 

“What?” Karl risks glancing behind him- of course, the magma has already closed him in, a patch oozing dangerously close to his feet. 

He didn’t want to visit him. Rather, returning from the Inbetween didn’t drop him in his library as usual, and instead he found himself standing face to face with Sam in the lobby of the prison. Sam had been skeptical- I mean, Karl had simply appeared, but eventually allowed him through following normal protocols. It was some sort of a sign to go and see the deranged prisoner, as dangerous as that was.

Karl had seen the future. He knew what was to happen in this cell, to another unfortunate soul. 

“Sapnap,” Dream says simply, and when Karl doesn’t offer anything but a sheepish blush, he sighs. “It’s always been Sapnap for you, hasn’t it?”

“He’s my husband,” Karl provides. “So, uh, yea, he has.” Dream surely didn’t know the depths of it, the truth, the anchor under the sea. The bottom of the iceberg. Karl doesn’t even know why Dream is so insistent about the fiery raven-haired warrior.

Dream wasn’t there each time Karl traveled through time, watching Sapnap mature from a rowdy cowboy to the postured James. Karl had been there though, holding onto those moments as dearly as he could.

The irrational villain ignores him. “It’ll be a shame when you forget him, won't it?”

It's that… tone of voice he uses. It makes Karl’s hair stand on end. It makes anyone Dreams talking to sound so hopeless and insignificant. Maybe that’s what landed Dream in this prison to begin with- a maniac with a silver tongue and too much power in his hands.

Karl wants to keep playing dumb with him, but understanding had dawned on him by now. Somehow, Dream knew about his gift, the precarious talent of time-traveling. Somehow Dream had caught on to that, and the nuances surrounding Sapnap. “I’m determined not to,” he muttered.

“Cute,” he replies, sniveling. “How’s that going for you? Do you even know why he likes the sun so much?”

The brunet pulls his hoodie sleeves over his hands. The blow sends his heart scattering, racing away with all scraps of self-esteem and returning with the plague of guilt. “I…-” he drones off. Both of them know he doesn’t know the answer.

Meanwhile, the blond chuckles. “I figured. It reminds him of the past,” he raises an eyebrow. “Reminds him of before all this. Before L’manburg, before Schlatt. Before you.”

Karl feels cold. He feels transparent. Misty. Just fog of a being. The worlds hit so much harder than he could have ever known. Before you. Karl would give the world to be in that era, to protect him from the future he’s endured.

“What do you want, Dream?” he asks softly. Any more of this and he may just die on the spot. A stinging retort is pushed down his throat- if you were such a good friend to Sapnap, maybe you wouldn’t be in prison. 

“Too much,” Dream responds. “You could never give what I want to me.” He pauses, though, making his thoughts more specific. “I’ve been watching you, you know. I’ve been there.”

“Been.. where?” He’s lost again, hopelessly keeping up with Dream. “In my shoes?”

Dream wheezes. His laugh is devoid of everything it used to hold. “Nooo. I mean in the past. Eventually, the future. The present. I’m there.”

The realization is a domino effect, weighing the cases of whether Dream was a time traveler. But of course, if that was the case, Dream wouldn’t be in this cell. Things would have gone according to his villainous plan.

Dream had to be immortal to have been alive to see it all. He would be around forever. 

The blond must see when the idea passes by his eyes, a gasp parting his lips. “Bingo,” he confirms. “So what could I possibly want from you?” It’s a rhetorical question. But Karl answers anyway.

“I don’t owe you anything.”

“But you know what I’ll do.”

That's the thing. Karl is selective about where he goes. So he knows that one day, Tommy dies. But he’s not sure when, only that Dream was his murderer. But besides that, Dream’s future is a murky idea. He appears in his tales, but what he’s done remains unspoken. Dream has overestimated him.

“I can promise you the future, Karl,” the maniac pushes off the wall, crossing the cramped cell so that Karl has to crane his neck to look into the horrendous cracked mask of the antagonist of his dreams. “Because I know what you want, and I know how my future will go.”

Karl holds his breath. “I know that I’ll escape, I know that I’ll gain power.” It’s random, but Karl compares Dream to a snake. That aura of mysterium, the slicked scales of ever changing meaning, and of course a siren’s song for a mouth. His skin crawls at the idea. “I know that I’ll win. So why don’t you help me?”

The brunet would stay silent, but his voice cracks into existence. “Why do you need my help?”

“Because you know,” Dream repeats. “You know what will happen. I can’t have you warning people and changing the future. You know you can't do that. Imagine,” his tone drops into a husky breath. “Imagine this. A world where everyone is united under one immortal leader.” Karl draws in a breath. “You and Sapnap will run away. I will spare you both. You never have to see me again.”

“How do I know you won’t trick me?” 

“Check the future,” he hums. “It can’t be lying to you, can it?”

Karl isn’t stupid. He knows how badly this can backfire. His memory would fade long before Dream was done using him as a puppet. Karl would be hopelessly dashing through wormholes, all to report back to Dream. And when the time came for that supposed freedom, Karl wouldn’t remember their deal. Dream would win.

But on the other hand, it’s beautifully tempting. He doesn’t have to care about anyone else for once. He can just take Sapnap away from this dreadful land, let him dance under the sun and pick flowers under shadowed groves. They can finally see a future that doesn’t involve time-traveling, and only involves them. Not James, not Rash, but Sapnap and Karl. Just them.

It’s a pretty dream. A beautiful fantasy, an alluring promise. Straight out of a fairytale.

He can’t take it.

“Sam!” Karl calls, backing away towards the lava. “I want to go.”

Dream doesn’t have anything to say. He lets Karl go. Always so wondrously incharge, it seems like he already knows his plan has worked, somehow. Always a step ahead, he already knows that Karl is right where he wants him.

Karl has debated traveling to the past, and staying there. Staying with an ancestor of Sapnap, and pretending Dream never existed. But even then, was he planning his grand scheme? Even then, in the Masquerade Ball, had he been there, plotting his next move?

He needs to see his past. Then maybe, he could change it, or at least understand.

The lava falls behind him, but Karl knows he’s far from escaped.

-

“Karl, where did you even get this book?” Sapnap asks, tossing it away carelessly. He barely notices Karl nearly diving to catch it. “And why is this James guy such a chad in it?”

If Karl blushes, Sapnap doesn’t catch it. “I told you, that's a secret just for me.” He bites his tongue about James. He doesn’t trust himself.

“Hmph.” Sapnap leans back into his chair, some of his hair falling over the back as the sun catches on his face. The red and white mushrooms make the land rather peaceful, but the sun moves too fast across the sky to be very good shade and coverage.

He’s beautiful like that- calm, quiet, natural. Karl is transfixed.

A canonical marriage between them and their best friend Quackity was the only way for Karl to duck beneath his affections and hide them with exaggerated ones. But times like these, alone with Sapnap, Karl can’t hide. 

“You’re quiet today,” the raven-haired boy says. He doesn’t sit up, at least not then, not until Karl hurriedly protests.

“It’s nothing,” Karl insists. Sapnap leans forward on his elbows. His eyes are like fire, sharp piercing indigo with the embers of power. They burn, Karl thinks, but yet he would take the risk to stoke the flames within them.

The brunet doesn’t like the sinister look that settles in place of confusion on Sapnap’s face. His smirk is joyfully light, amusement dancing through his mind at the tantalizing idea of whatever he was going to do to Karl.

Sapnap stands up calmly, but that’s the dam that breaks before chaos, because he lurches forward to catch Karl in his arms. Karl gasps and breaks into giddy giggles as Sapnap’s fingers pry into his skin, effectively tickling him. 

“Sapnap-“ he barely pants during the childish attack. Karl tries to defend himself by holding up his arms, but that only gives access to Sapnap to tickle his armpit and sides. 

It’s a well known fact to Sapnap that Karl is ticklish- he found that out in a situation very similar to what was going on right now. It had been Quackity who had initiated the tickle fight, but it had been Karl who had been the first to surrender.

The whole act is a little evil, but Sapnap knows Karl would never take it poorly. They just know each other that well.

“I am-“ Karl pushes him away with absolutely zero success, “-going to kill you, I swear-“ Sapnap chuckles, finally pausing his relentless attack and residing to resting his palms on Karl’s shoulders so they peer at each other evenly. 

“I’ll keep tickling you if you don’t tell me what’s on your mind,” the warrior threatens. It’s empty, though- sure, he’ll tickle Karl again, but if the brunet doesn’t want to tell him, he won’t push it.

Karl debates it for a second, his stomach turning with butterflies following their antics. “Okay, okay.” Sapnap drops his arms, crossing them with a satisfied look on his face. His confidence is far too attractive to not provoke another flush racing across Karl’s ears.

It’s right then when he realizes why he’s in such a dampened mood and feels pressure building behind his eyes. Sapnap’s expression quickly morphs to concern, watching as Karl inhales a rather shaky breath. The mood changes on a dime, and Sapnap silently wishes he hadn’t pushed so hard for the troubling truth.

He averts his gaze to the ground. “I visited Dream,” he says in a whisper. “And he- he…” Threatened me, he wants to say, but before he can form the words, Sapnap is there, hugging him, holding him-

Karl didn’t mean to cry, didn’t mean to get upset, didn’t mean to turn into a trembling mess, but some things happen. Tired from his trip back in time, mentally exhausted from trying to keep up with Dream, it all crumbles at once. He wishes he didn’t have to hide the things he did.

“Shush,” Sapnap reprimands him, but his tone is so fond, so affectionate, Karl might just die on the spot- “It’s okay, it’s okay. Let’s talk about it, alright?”

Sapnap is warm. His embrace is everything. Even with the world falling away beneath his feet, Sapnap is there to hold him still. 

The brunet nods. “Please.” With an arm around Karl’s shoulders, Sapnap glances to and from the forest before leading him away.

Sapnap is smart by not bringing him to the library. Such things remind Karl of what he has seen, what he has experienced. Specifically, Dream. Had he really been there the entire time? Disguised as someone under a false name, watching as Karl intermingled around the past?

As they walk, they’re silent except for the quivering breaths passing by the time traveler’s lips. Karl frantically presses his sleeves into his eyes to dry the pestering tears. Sapnap pulls him closer every time a hiccup disrupts the quiet, and Karl is soundlessly thankful.

When they sit down besides a lake Karl doesn’t even recognize, it’s a pleasant change. The water ripples with leaping minnows, orange flashes from the sun and the koi within the depths. The currents remind him of the flow of lava in Dream’s cell, and his heart plummets again.

“I wanted to take you here at some point,” the other responds as a means of explanation for the getaway. He’s still got an arm around Karl’s shoulders, easily swaying to the breeze. Even now, as the sun descends into the forest, Karl can see him, all of him. His jaw, his hair, his eyes. He burns brilliantly, brighter than the rest. He shines, with a purpose greater than one could ever know. But yet, Sapnap knows his worth. He knows his strength, his power. But only Karl, only Karl, could ever convince him that he was capable of a destiny as great as his was. 

“‘M sorry,” Karl murmurs. Sapnap doesn’t hesitate into pulling him into his chest, letting the brunet bury his face into the crook of his neck.

“For what?” Before Karl can answer, Sapnap goes on. “Dream’s a douche. Whatever he said to you, ignore him. He’s an old man stuck in prison with his tyrannical ideals. Maybe once he gets that stick out of his ass-”

“Sapnap!” Karl looks up in mock offence, but his playful front is wiped away once again. Sapnap’s smile is so genuine, his grip is so much like home, that the deep pining in his heart wanes away into nothing. For once, he is complete.

For once, he is home.

Everything feels normal for a few seconds. Karl isn't scared anymore, he doesn’t even give the green bastard another second in his thoughts. It’s just him, and Sapnap, and that’s all he ever wants it to be.

“What?” The raven-haired boy giggles. “I’m right. And you’re too good to be stooping to his level.” His hand circles Karl’s back, fingers pressing soothing divots into the cloth of his hoodie. 

“You always are,” Karl mutters. It’s muffled enough to any flora that bear witness, but not quiet enough to escape the prying ears of a certain boy with a white bandana.

He doesn’t comment. He never does.

He knows, too. He knows about the memory loss. The means behind it, he doesn’t quite get. But he knows Karl is lying to him, hiding things from him. He knows Karl is going to forget him, and leave him just as alone as he had been before Karl.

He’s afraid of it. So he keeps his distance. He lets it simmer, in hopes it’ll burn away. But it's the sun, what they have, so ferocious and undying, Sapnap keeps running back. They both do.

It’s hard to escape. “Do you feel better?”

“I do,” the brunet doesn’t move. Sapnap doesn’t want him to. 

“Good.”

They stay like that, hiding from the future, hiding from the truth. They like it that way. The less they know, the less they can fear. So what if Karl makes him feel safe? So what if Sapnap makes him feel at home? They can have what they have in the tedious balance they walk.

It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s all they have. And with it, they’ll treasure it, and hold it near and as close as possible, until the perfect peace it signifies breaks into a shattered warfare.

**Author's Note:**

> hi so uh this is my first posting on ao3, pls lemme know if i did it right or not <33 i hope you enjoyed... karlnap my beloved


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